World Bank Africa Group to Support Government in the area of Digital Economy

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Accra, 25th March, 2019 … Mr. Hafez Ghanem, World Bank Africa Vice President has given the assurance that the World Bank Africa group will work together with Ghana in the area of digital economy.

According to him, a strong digital economy provides the essential platform for revenue mobilization, education, infrastructure and they were excited to know that the Ghana government has already started the digital economy.

He made these remarks when he paid a courtesy call on the Hon. Minister of Finance, Mr. Ken Ofori-Atta at his office as part of a three-day working visit to the country. Mr. Hafez Ghanem was accompanied by staff of World Bank Africa Group and officials of International Finance Cooperation (IFC).

“We will work together with government to develop some application on the digital economy programme platform that would further help in infrastructure, education, regulation in pricing among other” Mr. Ghanem noted.

The World Bank Africa Vice President also commended the government for the bold decision in the banking sector reforms and called on authorities to put measures in place to protect the public from Ponzi schemes and fraudulent financial institutions.

He again stated that the time had come for the country to design programmes that focuses on gas usages

“What can be done over the medium term in terms of the oversupply of gas to increase the demand for it as natural gas is cheaper compared to other fossil fuels and cheaper than electricity when used for supplying home appliances. Natural gas appliances are also cheaper compared to electrical ones” Mr. Ghanem revealed.

The World Bank Africa Vice President disclosed the group’s willingness to support the country in the issue of increasing concessional debts after urging the managers of the economy to ensure the right structures are put in place to check the ever rising debts bedeviling the continent.

On his part, the Minister of Finance stated that the Government had put in place some recovery programmes aimed at positioning the economy on a stronger footing and mentioned that the Power Distribution Services Ghana Ltd (PDS) had taken over the distribution of power from Electricity Company of Ghana.

PDS, the Minister noted was expected to strengthen the governance, management and operations of ECG and improve the delivery of power to end users to support socio-economic growth in Ghana.

He reiterated government’s desire to improve all aspects of the economy and welcomed any recommendation that was geared towards that direction.

Mr. Ofori-Atta disclosed that as part of government’s effort at ensuring accountability in all of its businesses, the State Interest and Governance Accountability (SIGA) bill had been submitted to parliament.

He explained further that SIGA, when passed, will focus on ensuring that service delivery of state enterprises is monitored constantly to the benefit of customers.